The Chance: Pep Guardiola Shows Up At Amateur Football Match, Gives One Lad Shot At Professional Stardom (Video)

As part of Nike’s new global ‘The Chance 2012’ campaign to sniff out the world’s best young amateur players, Pep Guardiola showed up unannounced at a youth game in Spain, casting his beady (beardy?) eye across the talent on show and eventually selecting one lad with godawful hair to advance to the Spanish finals…

Created to support talented youngsters who are not currently in the professional game, ‘The Chance’ will allow the best young footballers (over 16 as of March 1st 2012) to train and play at the leading facilities in world football – with players from 55 countries taking part in trials before 100 players being selected for the global final, which will see them experience the world class facilities and elite coaching at Barcelona’s esteemed La Masia academy.

The best 16 footballers from the global finals will then be chosen by Nike to experience the ultimate training tour as their reward; facing some of the most renowned academy teams in world football, including Manchester United and a U.S. Youth National Team during a once-in-a-lifetime four-week tour.

Behind the scenes interview with the Pepster…

“My piece of advice for these players is just to play. Play as much as you can. All the time. Everywhere. Just play. The rest will come.”

See? It’s as easy as that!

Interested? You can find out more about ‘The Chance 2012’ campaign at Nike’s Facebook page or by following @NikeFootball on Twitter.